Born the youngest of eight siblings into a musical household as the son of a bicycle shop owner, Joe Dolan ranks among Ireland’s most accomplished vocalists. During his early years he regularly supplied washboard accompaniment for his sisters’ vocals. Following the deaths of his father when he was eight and his mother when he was fifteen, he left home and completed an apprenticeship as a compositor at the Westmeath Examiner. Music nevertheless remained a powerful draw. After finishing his training in 1964, he toured the dancehall circuit with his brother Ben before joining the Drifters Showband. His debut single, a cover of Del Shannon’s “Answer to Everything,” climbed to number four on the Irish charts. The sole Irish vocalist to place in the Top Ten during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Dolan maintained a steady presence on the Emerald Isle’s hit parade. Among his many successes were “I Love You More and More Everyday,” “My Own Peculiar Way,” “Aching Breaking Heart,” “Pretty Brown Eyes,” “Tar and Cement,” “The House with the Whitewashed Gable,” “Love of the Common People,” and “The Westmeath Bachelor.” He achieved international success with “Make Me an Island,” which reached the summit in fourteen countries, and followed that in 1969 with European Top Ten entries including “Teresa,” “You’re Such a Good Looking Woman,” “It Makes No Difference,” and “Falling in Love.”
Working alongside Italian songwriter-producer Robert Danova and songwriter Peter Yellowstone, Dolan attained his greatest commercial peak with the million-selling “Lady in Blue,” which he wrote and recorded in 1975. Further collaborations with the same team yielded additional hits such as “Crazy Woman,” “I Need You,” “Sister Mary,” “Sixteen Brothers,” “My Love,” “You Belong to Me,” “Most Wanted Man in the U.S.A.,” and “Hush Hush Maria.”
In 1978 he became the first Western performer to appear in the former Soviet Union. Two years later he made his North American debut with a two-month residency at the Silverbird Hotel in Las Vegas, returning for a six-week engagement in 1981.
In the early 1990s he founded his own imprint, Gable Records, and scored a Top 20 single, “Ciara,” in 1993; the 1997 album Endless Magic subsequently peaked at number nine. He also recorded the chart-topping “Good Looking Woman” with puppet Dustin the Turkey.
Dolan stayed attuned to current sounds. His 1998 release Joe’s 90’s offered reinterpretations of material by Blur, Oasis, and Pulp, while 21st Century Joe, issued the following year, presented versions of songs associated with David Bowie, U2, R.E.M., and Bruce Springsteen.
